The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Mecardonia plant, botanically known as Mecardonia hybrida, and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘Sunmecakira’.
The new Mecardonia plant is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Higashiomi, Shiga, Japan. The objective of the breeding program is to create new freely branching compact Mecardonia cultivars with large flowers and high temperature tolerance.
The new Mecardonia plant originated from a cross-pollination made by the Inventor in Higashiomi, Shiga, Japan in 2004 of a proprietary selection of Mecardonia hybrida identified as code number 3Mec-8A, not patented, as the female, or seed, parent with a proprietary selection of Mecardonia hybrida identified as code number 01T-9, not patented, as the male, or seed, parent. The new Mecardonia was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a single flowering plant from within the progeny of the stated cross-pollination in a controlled greenhouse environment in Higashiomi, Shiga, Japan in 2006.
Asexual reproduction of the new Mecardonia plant by vegetative cuttings in a controlled environment in Higashiomi, Shiga, Japan since October, 2006, has shown that the unique features of this new Mecardonia are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.